Roy Kerr

Roy Patrick Kerr is a New Zealand mathematician, born in Kurow in 1934, who discovered the Kerr geometry, an exact solution of the Einstein field equations of general relativity. The solution describes the gravitational field outside an uncharged rotating massive object, including a rotating black hole, and predicted spinning black holes before any were observed. Kerr studied at Canterbury University College, took his PhD at the University of Cambridge in 1959, and worked at Syracuse University, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, the University of Texas at Austin and later the University of Canterbury. His honors include the Hector Medal, the Hughes Medal, the Rutherford Medal and the Albert Einstein Medal.